Financial/Banking

Seattle – The board of directors of Nordstrom Inc. has authorized a repurchase program of up to $1 billion of the company’s outstanding common stock, through March 1, 2016. Nordstrom intends to fund the repurchase program from existing cash on hand.

Mooresville, N.C. - Lowe's Companies Inc. has agreed to sell $450 million of floating rate notes due 2019, $450 million of 3.125% notes due 2024 and $350 million of 4.250% notes due 2044. Estimated net proceeds from this offering will be approximately $1.24 billion, after deducting offering expenses and underwriters' discounts.

Los Angeles -- CBRE Group, Inc. announced that Spencer Levy has been appointed Americas head of research. Levy, a seven-year veteran of CBRE, had previously served as executive managing director in the company’s Capital Markets Group. His most recent duties included oversight of CBRE Capital Market’s Corporate Advisory, Auction and Latin America operations. He also directly serves a number of major clients.  

Atlanta – The alleged security breach that recently hit The Home Depot Inc. may have compromised credit and debit card data at nearly all of the company’s stores. According to the security website Krebsonsecurity.com, the unique ZIP codes of a large batch of new cards listed for sale on underground hacker sites shows a more than 99% overlap with nearby Home Depot stores, suggesting a widespread breach.

Issaquah, Wash. – Costco Wholesale Corp. on Thursday reported that its revenue for the fourth-quarter climbed 9% to $34.8 billion. Total same-store sales, excluding negative impacts from gasoline price deflation and foreign exchange, increased 7%.

Costco plans to open nine new warehouse stores before the end of calendar year 2014.

During the full fiscal year 2014, Costco reported a 7% jump in net sales to $110.2 million from $102.9 million. Total same-store sales rose 6%.  

Naples, Fla. -- ACI Worldwide, a leading global provider of electronic payment and banking solutions, announced that Auchan Group, one of the world’s largest food retailers, has selected the company to deliver its new SEPA-compliant European card payments platform, the first of its kind in Europe.

New York -- Amazon said that senior VP and CFO Thomas J. Szkutak plans to retire in June 2015. Brian T. Olsavsky, VP finance for Amazon’s global consumer business, will succeed Szkutak. Szkutak and Olsavsky will work together during the next 10 months as part of the transition.

Szkutak joined Amazon in 2002 as CFO, and oversees the controller, treasury, investor relations, tax, internal audit and facilities functions as well as financial management of the company’s business units.

Clearwater, Fla. - MarineMax Inc. has expanded its financing facility to provide for borrowings of up to $235 million. The expanded facility has a three-year term, expiring in August 2017, and it has two, one-year options to renew, subject to lender approval.